Marriage Facts and Research

Statistics on marriage and divorce are of great interest to federal, state, and local public officials, researchers, the business sector, the media, and members of the general public. They want to know how many people are married or divorced, what the marriage and divorce rates are, and the trends over time. A major reason for this interest is that marriage and divorce numbers are considered to be key social indicators of personal, child and societal wellbeing. Also there are numerous benefits, rights and privileges contingent on marital status. While there is great interest in this information, the quality, availability, reliability, usability and completeness of marriage and divorce statistics has been lacking in a number of jurisdictions. At times, the limitations of the data have impacted stakeholders' ability to accurately examine marriage and divorce trends and appropriately shape programs and policies related to family formation.

NHMRC Collection by Topic

The Marriage and Divorce Related Statistics Collection by Topic is an annotated listing of published resources that describe and assess the state of marriage and divorce- related information. Collectively these resources address why it is important to accurately count marriages and divorces, clarify some of the confusion about what the statistics mean, identify the different sources of this data and associated strengths and limitations, and provide recommendations on how to improve the data.

NHMRC Fact Sheets and Research Briefs

The NHMRC has published a number of data sheets on various topics. You can also search our site at the upper right of the page to find information about a specific topic you are interested in.